Malaria remains one of the most deadly parasitic infectious
diseases in the world.12 The growing emergence of resistance
against conventional antimalarials, including ACT’s, urges the
search for novel and better antiplasmodial drugs, preferably directed
to new targets.13e15
The approval of Malarone for the treatment and prevention of
multidrug resistant malaria validated the bc1 protein complex of
Plasmodium falciparum as target for developing new antimalarial
drugs. The bc1 complex is a homodimeric transmembrane protein
responsible for the transfer of electrons from ubiquinol to cytochrome
c, concomitantly with the vectorial translocation of protons
across the inner mitochondrial membrane16,17 and has been considered
as an important target for antiplasmodial drug design. It